Stacy Peralta (born October 15, 1957) is an American director and entrepreneur. Peralta was previously a professional skateboarder and surfer with the professional skateboarding group, the Z-Boys.

Early life

Peralta was born in Venice, California. Stacy attended and graduated from Venice High School in 1975. At age 15, he began competing with the Z-Boys, a group sponsored by the surf shop "Jeff Ho Surfboards and Zephyr Productions". His second sponsor was "Gordon and Smith".

Innovation and success

Peralta can lay claim to the invention of the frontside flip to fakie, although this was on the rolled-over lip of skatepark bowls—it took the young Alan Losi to take it to the coping at the Upland Pipeline skatepark. To help skaters ride this maneuver in, Stacy came up with a device called a "lapper" which was essentially a tough polyethylene flap that bolted to the front of the board's rear truck. These are rarely seen nowadays. Part of his gear line also designed the first "mini-ripper" skateboard.

At the age of 19, Peralta became the highest-ranked professional skateboarder. Soon after, he joined with manufacturer George Powell to form the Powell-Peralta skate gear company. With the financial backing of Powell-Peralta, Peralta formed the seminal Bones Brigade, a skate team composed of some the best skaters at the time, many of whom revolutionized modern skateboarding. He also began directing and producing the first skating demo videos for skaters such as Tony Hawk.

Stacy Peralta is also credited in the 1985 movie ''Real Genius'' with Val Kilmer, William Atherton and Gabriel Jarret. Stacy played commander of a fictional space vehicle delivering a deadly laser toward an unsuspecting criminal during the film's opening scene.

Behind the camera

In 1992, Peralta left Powell-Peralta to direct and produce for television full-time. His lingering love of the board manifested itself in the film, ''Dogtown and Z-Boys'', a documentary film regarding the legendary skateboard team known as the Z-Boys, and ''Riding Giants'', a 2004 documentary of the history of modern big wave surfing and tow-in surfing. ''Dogtown'' won an award at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival. Peralta also wrote the screenplay for the dramatic retelling of the Dogtown days in ''Lords of Dogtown'' (2005). His most recently released film, ''Crips and Bloods: Made in America'' (2008), focuses on gang violence in south-central Los Angeles which provides insights into the origins of the infamous Crips and Bloods with a look at the social injustice of 1950s and 60s L.A.

In 2008, Peralta directed a series of television commercials for Burger King in which the Inuit people of Greenland, Transylvanians of Romania and Hmong of Thailand, known as "Whopper virgins" in the ads, were offered their first taste of a fast food hamburger and asked to compare the Whopper to McDonald's Big Mac. Peralta subsequently came under attack for what some deemed exploitation of native peoples.

Peralta's experience as an entrepreneur and skate demo filmmaker was adapted for the video game ''Tony Hawk's Underground''. In 2003 Peralta also did cameo work in the game where he played himself.

Divorced in the 1990s, he has one son, Austin Peralta, he remarried in 2001 to Gemma Vizor; together they have one child named Willow.

References

External links

Nonfiction Unlimited biography

Stacy Peralta Producer Profile for The 1 Second Film

Interview with the Palisadian-Post

Category:1957 births Category:American film directors Category:American skateboarders Category:Living people Category:American film directors of Mexican descent Category:American sportspeople of Mexican descent Category:People from Venice, Los Angeles Category:Sundance Film Festival award winners

br:Stacy Peralta ca:Stacy Peralta cs:Stacy Peralta de:Stacy Peralta es:Stacy Peralta fr:Stacy Peralta it:Stacy Peralta nl:Stacy Peralta ja:ステイシー・ペラルタ pl:Stacy Peralta pt:Stacy Peralta sv:Stacy Peralta

Coordinates	34°03′″N118°15′″N
birth name	Rodney Mullen
birth date	August 17, 1966
birth place	Gainesville, Florida, U.S.
website	rodneymullen.net
sport	Skateboarding
country	}}

John Rodney Mullen (born August 17, 1966 in Gainesville, Florida) is a professional freestyle and street skateboarder. He is considered by many to be the best and most influential skater in the history of skateboarding. Mullen is credited with inventing the flatground ollie, the kickflip (originally called the "magic flip") in 1983, the heelflip, the impossible, and a long list of other original tricks. Mullen is credited in numerous skateboarding videos, and has authored an autobiography entitled ''The Mutt: How to Skateboard and not Kill Yourself''.

At age six, Mullen was diagnosed with pigeon toe and had to wear leg braces to fix the condition. He began skateboarding on January 1, 1977 at age 10, when his father (who had opposed his son's wishes to practice the sport) finally agreed to give Rodney a skateboard on condition that he would always wear pads, and with the understanding that if he were to ever get hurt, he would have to quit. He describes his interest in skateboarding: "I fell in love with skateboarding because it was individual. There were no teams, there were no captains ... it was completely opposite of what I saw in so many sports: It was creative. I could walk around with my skateboard at the skate park. "I love skateboarding."

Rodney began practicing in full pads. He spent time with his sister's surfer friends who would skateboard on the week days. In 1978, having owned a skateboard for less than a year, Rodney placed 4th out of a group of older and more experienced professional skateboarders.

Early career

Throughout the 1980s, he invented the majority of skating's ollie and flip tricks, including the flatground ollie, the Kickflip, the Darkslide, the Heelflip, and the 360 flip. The tricks are an essential part of modern vertical and street skateboarding.

Despite Alan Gelfand's justifiable fame for inventing the ollie air (Gelfand's maneuver being primarily a vert or pool oriented trick) Mullen is responsible for the invention and development of the street ollie. The ability to pop the board off of the ground and land back on the board while moving has quite likely been the most significant development in modern skateboarding. This invention alone would rank Mullen the most important skateboarder of all time.

As the popularity of freestyle skateboarding declined, Mullen was often urged to move his style toward street skating. This is hinted at in the World Industries video ''Rubbish Heap'', where Mullen's sequence ends with team member Jeremy Klein breaking Rodney's freestyle skateboard, and handing him a note from Steve Rocco, symbolizing the end of freestyle.

Fame

In 1991 Mullen joined the high-profile skateboarding team Plan B. Mike Ternasky, the owner of Plan B, influenced Rodney to transition from freestyle to street skating, and showcased the results in the 1992 Plan B video ''Questionable''. Mullen's segment begins with traditional freestyle tricks done on flat ground, but quickly accelerates across public terrain to shift into standard street skating. In relation to obstacles, he sequences tricks, mixes flip tricks with grinds and board slides. In the video, Mullen introduced two newly invented tricks, the Kickflip Underflip and the Casper slide.

Mullen's ''Questionable'' performance may have marked the beginning of a new era in street skateboarding. His reluctant departure from freestyle to become a street skater was a symbol that legitimized the technical direction street skating had taken over the previous few years. Mullen specialized at this progression in subsequent Plan B videos; noteworthy is 1993's ''Virtual Reality'' where Mullen showcases the newly-mastered Darkslide.

Mullen's participation in Plan B dissolved after Mike Ternasky died unexpectedly in 1994. In 1997, Mullen started another company, A-Team, with the intent of forming a super team with the defection of Plan B from the World Industries empire. Rodney talked to friend and fellow pro Daewon Song to plan the video ''Rodney vs. Daewon'', which featured each skater competing in segments from trick to trick.

Since 1999, Rodney Mullen has appeared in most of the console games of the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series, Tony Hawk Underground, Tony Hawk Underground 2 ,Tony Hawk American Wasteland, Tony Hawks Proving Ground, and the last game he was in was Tony Hawk: Ride

The A-Team folded in 2000 and Mullen went from company founder to company rider under former Maple rider Marc Johnson, who started Enjoi Skateboards. Mullen left Enjoi to head Almost Skateboards with Daewon Song, the company which he still helms and skates for. Mullen's role at Almost includes research and development on new designs and technologies, including Tensor truck in 2000 and experimental and composite deck constructions for Dwindle brands.

In 2002 the World Industries companies, under the holding name Kubic Marketing, were bought out by Globe International for $46 million. Kubic's management remained intact and Mullen began working for Globe International under the Dwindle Distribution brand.

In 2003, Mullen wrote and released his autobiography, entitled ''The Mutt: How to skateboard and not kill yourself''. In late 2003 he was voted as the all-time greatest action sports athlete on the Extreme Sports Channel's ''Legends of the Extreme'' countdown.

From 2007 to 2009, Mullen worked to erase his riding stance, allowing him to move from regular stance to goofy stance. In an interview with Tony Hawk, Mullen explained that he had developed problems in his right hip joint and that his transition between stances came out of an effort to favor his leg. He goes on to describe that scar tissue had built up in his joint as a result of habitually hyper-extending his leg while skating. Mullen stated that through extensive and consistent stretching he was able to tear away the scar tissue.

In December 2010 Mullen stated in an interview that he is preparing to film a part for the upcoming Almost video.

Filmography

Powell Peralta: Skateboarding in the '80's (1982)

Powell Peralta: The Bones Brigade Video Show (1984)

Powell Peralta: Future Primitive (1985)

Powell Peralta: Public Domain (1988)

Gleaming the Cube ("Skate double", 1989)

World Industries: Rubbish Heap (1989)

Plan B: Questionable (1992)

Plan B: Virtual Reality (1993)

Plan B: Second Hand Smoke (1995)

Rodney Mullen vs. Daewon Song (1997)

Rodney Mullen Vs. Daewon Song Round 2 (1999)

Globe: Opinion

Almost: Round Three (2004)

Transworld: Show Me the Way (Darkslide)

Tony Hawk's Secret Skatepark Tour (2005)

''John from Cincinnati'' (Skate double, Episode 10, 2007)

United by Fate (2008)

References

Further reading

Brooke, M (1999). ''Concrete Wave: The History Of Skateboarding''. ISBN 1-894020-54-5.

Category:American skateboarders Category:Freestyle skateboarders Category:1966 births Category:Living people Category:University of Florida alumni Category:People from Gainesville, Florida bg:Родни Мълън ca:Rodney Mullen da:Rodney Mullen de:Rodney Mullen et:Rodney Mullen es:Rodney Mullen fr:Rodney Mullen it:Rodney Mullen nl:Rodney Mullen ja:ロドニー・ミューレン no:Rodney Mullen pl:Rodney Mullen pt:Rodney Mullen ro:Rodney Mullen ru:Маллен, Родни simple:Rodney Mullen sk:Rodney Mullen sl:Rodney Mullen fi:Rodney Mullen sv:Rodney Mullen tr:Rodney Mullen

Tom Sims is a world champion of snowboarding in California. In 1969, according to an early 1970's interview with Tom Sims in Surfer magazine, he made what he called a "skiboard," a version of a surfboard for snow. He did not pursue the sport any further until the late 1970's when Sims skateboard team rider and visionary Lonnie Toft brought Bob Weber's Flying Banana to skateboarder magazine pages. Sims was the snowboarding stunt double for "007" along with snowboarder Steve Link for (Roger Moore) in the 1984 James Bond release, ''A View to a Kill''. The Tom Sims footage did not make it into the movie, the action shots are of Mr. Link. The Sims brand for snowboards and skateboards has been almost continually licensed to various third parties since 1986, the most recent, in 2006, the Sims Snowboards brand was licensed by Collective Licensing International, Tom Sims practices a hands off approach to the business and the brand has experienced a decline in prestige over the decades due to brand mismanagement.

References

External links

Sims Snowboards

Ideas: The Snowboard

Tom Sims Interview in Frequency Snowboard Journal

Tom Sims & skateboarding Before Tom Sims got into snowboarding he was a professional skateboarder in the 1970s. He created the skateboard company Sims skateboards & sponsored many of the top professional skateboarders of the 1980s including Lester Kasai, Jeff Phillips (who later committed suicide) & Christian Hosoi.

Category:American inventors Category:American snowboarders Category:Living people Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:People from Camden County, New Jersey

fr:Tom Sims tr:Tom Sims

''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' is a source of information on Canada. It is available online, at no cost. The Canadian Encyclopedia is available in both English and French and includes some 14,000 articles in each language on a wide variety of subjects including history, popular culture, events, people, places, politics, arts, First Nations, sports and science.

The website also provides access to the Encyclopedia of Music in Canada, The Canadian Encyclopedia Junior Edition, Maclean's articles and Timelines of Canadian history.

History

Canada had been without a national encyclopedia since the 1957 ''Encyclopedia Canadiana''.

In response to this, Mel Hurtig, a staunch Canadian nationalist, launched a project to create a wholly new ''Canadian Encyclopedia'' with support from Alberta Premier Peter Lougheed. Editor in chief James Harley Marsh recruited more than 3,000 authors to write for it.

The first edition of ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' was published in three volumes in 1985 (ISBN 0-88830-269-X) and was a Canadian bestseller (150,000 sets sold in six months), and a revised and expanded edition was released in 1988 (ISBN 0-88830-326-2). The company later published ''The Junior Encyclopedia of Canada'' (ISBN 0-88830-334-3).

In 1995, the first CD-ROM edition was published (ISBN 0-7710-2041-4). Currently The Historica Foundation of Canada, a not-for-profit foundation, publishes the encyclopedia for free online.

See also

List of online encyclopedias

References

External links

''The Canadian Encyclopedia''

Category:English-language encyclopedias Category:French encyclopedias Category:Online encyclopedias Category:Canadian non-fiction books Category:Canadian websites Category:Books about Canada Category:National encyclopedias

de:The Canadian Encyclopedia fr:L'Encyclopédie canadienne

Coordinates	34°03′″N118°15′″N
Name	Tim Simenon
Landscape	Yes
Background	non_performing_personnel
Born	June 21, 1967
Origin	Brixton, London, UK
Genre	Electronica, Trip-hop
Occupation	Producer, mixer, musician, label owner
Associated acts	Bomb The Bass, Mark Lanegan, Depeche Mode, Justin Warfield, Paul Conboy
Website	}}

Tim Simenon (born 21 June 1967, Brixton, London) is a musician, composer, record producer, and label boss, most famous for his work as Bomb the Bass.

Debut

Tim Simenon's music career began aproper in the mid 1980s, DJing at London's Wag Club. However, inspired by his hunger for new music, and following early experiments with keyboards and beatboxes, and a short stint on a music production college course in North London, Simenon was quick to take up the offer of a two-day recording session. Working alongside Pascal Gabriel, who would later go on to become a major name in programming, the fruit of the pair's labour became ''Beat Dis'', the debut single by Bomb the Bass.

Reputedly costing £500 to make, the track followed the emerging, hip-hop inspired cut-and-paste method of collaging samples together. According to the BBC, which featured ''Beat Dis'' on their clip-based TOTP2 show, the track contains an alleged 72 samples, including lifts from old school hip hop, funk (including The Jimmy Castor Bunch), alongside samples from ''The Good, the Bad and the Ugly'' and ''Thunderbirds'' soundtracks.

Whilst Simenon continued to earn money stacking supermarket shelves and DJ'ing, ''Beat Dis'' first appeared on the Mister-Ron imprint: a ruse designed to suggest that the record was a U.S. import, fresh out of New York. The record went straight into the UK singles chart at number two when released by Rhythm King records. Its smiley artwork - borrowed from the Watchmen comic books - influenced much of the imagery surrounding the 'acid house' and 'rave' scenes.

Initial success

Simenon went on to follow up the track with three more singles taken from a hastily recorded album ''Into the Dragon''. ''Into the Dragon'' acknowledged the debt it owed to the Japanese hip-hop label Major Force, New York producer Steinski, UK artists Massive Attack / Wild Bunch and the 23 Skidoo / Ronin collective.

However, it would be with the wildly popular single ''Buffalo Stance'' by Swedish/African artist Neneh Cherry - which Simenon produced - that his future reputation as a hit-maker began to take shape. The song, which featured lyrics name-checking Simenon ("Bomb the Bass, rock this place") reached number three on the UK singles chart and number 1 on the US dance chart. This was followed by several further hits in succession, courtesy of second single, ''Manchild'', and the mother album, ''Raw Like Sushi''. Despite the latter not being fully produced by Simenon, it would follow the same urban template, pre-dating the American hip-hop revolution to come.

Keeping the beat: Simenon's first three albums as Bomb the Bass

With each successive album, Simenon moved to buck the accepted dance music trend by incorporating ever greater amounts of live instrumentation into his sound: ''Unknown Territory'' would set raw rock guitars against its breakbeats; whilst ''Clear'' would strike out even further, blending reggae and dub into the mix courtesy of various instrumentalists from the On-U Soundsystem / Tackhead collective.

Despite scoring another huge hit with the trip-hop pioneering ''Winter In July'' single, the second album ''Unknown Territory'' was marred by delays; not least when Pink Floyd refused to clear a sample of "Money" included on one of the tracks. However, the most contentious delay was when the band had to briefly ditch their Bomb the Bass tag, due to media censoring out of context references to warfare during the first Iraq war. (The collective would briefly release under the singular title, Tim Simenon.)

Across his first three albums, Simenon would also continue to indulge his eclectic aesthetic fascinations by repeatedly borrowing from non-musical popular culture sources: with samples from both ''The Good, the Bad and the Ugly'' and ''Death Race 2000'' soundtracks, and films like ''Videodrome'' and ''Blade Runner'' peppering tracks on ''Unknown Territory''. ''Clear'' on the other hand (released on the Stoned Heights imprint of Island Records), bore heavy references to the writings - and infamous lifestyle - of William Burroughs: the cover was an homage to the advert poster of the ''Naked Lunch'' movie; ''Bug Powder Dust'' was a mish-mash of Burroughs references and mirror of the author's cut-up writing method; whilst the constant references to drug use, and the reliance on spoken word across most of the albums tracks would suggest an updated return to the Beat marriage of music and poetry. Said spoken words came courtesy of Justin Warfield, novelist Will Self (continuing the Beat tradition of mixing heroin with writing), and writer/musician Leslie Winer.

Simenon as producer

In between Bomb the Bass projects, Simenon continued to produce, remix and collaborate with a wide range of artists. In addition to collaborating with John Foxx on the 12" single ''Remember'' as Nation 12 (which enjoyed a measure of success in clubs and raves across the UK), other acts included Björk, David Bowie, Massive Attack, Ash, Seal, rap act Consolidated, French producer Hector Zazou, Gavin Friday and Depeche Mode.

The latter two projects would both have a major effect on Simenon. The Gavin Friday project,''Shag Tobacco'', not only catapulted Friday into the mainstream (spawning the track ''Angel'' which found its way onto the hugely successful soundtrack of the ''Romeo & Juliet'' movie), but also caught the attention of a pair of British musicians on the look out for a new producer: Dave Gahan and Martin Gore of Depeche Mode. Says Gahan, "There was loads of names being thrown at us (to produce Depeche Mode's next album after ''Songs of Faith and Devotion''), but in the end we picked (Simenon) because Martin (Gore) and I really liked the Gavin Friday album that he did. ''Shag Tobacco'' is an absolutely brilliant album, (and) we really loved the sounds he produced."

As a result, Simenon was brought on board to produce what would become Depeche Mode's first album without multi-instrumentalist and production-strong Alan Wilder, ''Ultra''; a project that would demand eighteen months, due to worsening divisions within the band acerbated by Dave Gahan's battle with heroin addiction. Upon release, the album went straight into the UK charts at number one, selling 40,000 copies in its first week of release, and launched a number of singles, including ''Barrel of a Gun'', ''It's No Good'', and ''Home'' However, despite being a hit and going on to achieve over three million sales worldwide, the project would have another - less positive - effect on Simenon.

Quoted in the biography, ''Depeche Mode: Black Celebration'' by Steve Malins, Simenon confessed, ''"I just felt f*cked by the end of the recording, and I carried on working in January and February 1997, which was the worst thing I could have done. I started to feel really ill. So I took a break and had a few months off. I was just mentally and physically exhausted."''

The work in question, which took the form of recording sessions with Jack Dangers from Meat Beat Manifesto (which later surfaced as the ''Tracks'' EP) would - with the exception of a further single with Depeche Mode, ''Only When I Lose Myself'' - be the last Bomb the Bass outing for many years. ''"It’d been non-stop for more than 10 years, and I was just burnt out. It all just caught up, and took its toll; just left me feeling very, very uninspired."'' Stepping down, Simenon moved to Amsterdam and took what would become an extended break; diverting some of his attention into setting up and running the independent Electric Tones label.

Launched in 2000 as an outlet for "electronic and left-field releases", the label was initially designed to showcase acts Simenon thought deserved attention, however, he has also contributed several tracks to Electric Tones compilations under his experimental alias, Flow Creator.

The following year, Simenon was nominated for an Ivor Novello for his work on the theme to the BBC TV series, ''Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased)'' alongside David Arnold.

Back to the front: Simenon as performer again

Over the last few years, Simenon has slowly but surely returned to active duties: producing for Dot Allison, Bangkok based electro clash band Futon, as well as initial tracks with the Scottish band, Fangs.

More significantly, Simenon also re-activated Bomb the Bass, with the collective delivering the critically applauded Future Chaos album via !K7 Records in 2008. Written, recorded and produced in collaboration with Paul Conboy (formerly of A.P.E. and Cooper/Conboy), the nine-track album also contains contributions from Toob, Jon Spencer, Fujiya & Miyagi, and Mark Lanegan. Simenon also put a live version of the act together, built around himself on samples and live mixing, Conboy on live keyboards and vocals, plus two brothers as live DJ (Claudio) and visual scratch artist (Valerio).

Having wrapped the Future Chaos campaign after the third single, Black River (featuring Mark Lanegan on vocals), Simenon returned to the studio to begin work on the next Bomb the Bass album, due for release in late 2009.

Production credits

2008 Toob - Pirate Teeth w/Bomb the Bass Bomb the Bass - Black River w/Mark Lanegan Bomb the Bass - Butterfingers w/ Fujiya & Miyagi Bomb the Bass - So Special Bomb the Bass - Future Chaos (album) Fangs - Fangs City Rockers Fangs - Panik Attak 2007 Futon - Strap It On Futon - Love So Strong Futon - End Of Friend 2006 Primal Scream - Sometimes I Feel So Lonely (remix) Dot Allison - Quicksand Dot Allison - Paper Rose Biggi - Sofdu Med Ljosid A Biggi - Reason to Grow Biggi - Perfect Sunday 2002 Robot Finger (as Flow Creator) Ikara (as Flow Creator) 2001 Bomb the Bass - Fast w/Shawn Lee Bomb the Bass - Clear Cut w/Lali Puna 1999 Bomb the Bass - Lost Your Soul Bomb the Bass - Disco Bob w/Justin Warfield 1998 Depeche Mode - Only When I Lose Myself Curve - Sweetback Curve - Something Familiar Curve - Recovery Curve - Killer Baby Curve - Dirty High Curve - Coming Up Roses Alpha - Sometime Later (remix) 1997 Depeche Mode - Ultra (album) Depeche Mode - The Bottom Line Depeche Mode - It's No Good Depeche Mode - Insight Depeche Mode - Home Depeche Mode - Barrel of a Gun 1996 One Inch Punch - Secrets of the One Inch Punch (album) 1995 David Bowie - Heart's Filthy Lesson (remix) Gavin Friday - Shag Tobacco (album) Gavin Friday - Caruso Gavin Friday - Angel 1994 Gavin Friday & Bono - In the Name of the Father Sinéad O'Connor - You Made Me the Thief of Your Heart Sinéad O'Connor - Fire On Babylon Sinéad O'Connor - Famine Sinéad O'Connor - Thank You For Hearing Me Massive Attack - Sly (remix) Bomb the Bass - Clear (album) Bomb the Bass - Empire w/B Zephaniah & Sinéad O'Connor Bomb the Bass - Dark Heart w/Spikey Tee Bomb the Bass - Bug Powder Dust w/Justin Warfield Bomb the Bass - Brain Dead w/Justin Warfield 1993 Björk - Play Dead (remix) 1992 Cheb Khaled - Didi (remix) 1991 Bomb the Bass - Winter in July w/Loretta Heywood Bomb the Bass - Unknown Territory (album) Seal - Krazy 1988 Neneh Cherry - Manchild Neneh Cherry - Buffalo Stance Bomb the Bass - Into the Dragon (album) Bomb the Bass - Megablast Bomb the Bass - Beat Dis

References

Category:1967 births Category:Living people Category:British record producers Category:British DJs Category:British house musicians Category:British electronic musicians Category:People from Brixton

nl:Tim Simenon